18 May 2024
Viator: 1/5
Experience/mountain guides: 5/5
We booked the 2 day private Mount Toubkal Trek for our family of 4 with 2 young adult children through Viator. We tried to check a few things ahead of time and they were impossible to reach via email or phone. The pickup was about 45 mins late and we still had to drive around Marrakech to pick up 3 more parties. Once we arrived in Imlil we realized that the private tour wasn’t private after all. We were in a group of 12. To cut a long story short: find a different tour provider, do not book through Viator.
The mountain guides are accompanied by 2 mules and a cook. If you want to sleep in your own sleeping bag (there are blankets at the refuge) or bring extra gear or luggage, they will put it on the mules and take it up the mountain for you.
On day 1 they provide a cooked lunch and dinner - there is always plenty of food. On day 2 they provide breakfast and a cooked lunch. Bring snacks for in between meals or extra boosts of energy during the hike. As there are numerous opportunities during the hike to buy water (including at the refuge), there is no need to bring water for the whole 2 days.
Bring a headlamp. You will need it for at least 3 hours of the ascent. And I would highly recommend hiking poles for day 2, it is super steep and rocky all the way up and down. Bring layers and gloves. We did the trek mid May and it got really cold at the top.
Day 1 is a 11 km pretty strenuous hike up the mountain to the refuge. Day 2 of the trek is extremely challenging - do not underestimate it. The tour description doesn’t quite explain how challenging it really is. Being an avid hiker like myself (and most of the members in our group) is helpful, but this trek is something else. My 22 year old son was one of two people who didn’t find it particularly hard - he bounded up the mountain like a young goat. We had 2 people in our group of 12 fall ill with altitude sickness. It was a huge struggle for them to get back down to the refuge, they threw up more than once and fell very nauseous and week. I thought about giving up and turning around more than once. I might have cried close to the top and uttered many choice words. And after a very tough ascent and almost equally tough descent (7 kms one way), you still have to hike 11 kms back to Imlil which is strenuous in itself. This was the physically hardest thing I have ever done.
The mountain guides were absolutely fantastic. They were very good at looking after everybody and keeping everybody going. Even though we were initially annoyed and disappointed about not being in a private group, being in a big group enabled the 4 of us to hike with people who were hiking at the same pace, which was very motivating.
All in all this 2-day trek was a fantastic experience to do as a family with young adults. We will talk about this for years to come. For me personally day 2 was too hard to be enjoyable.